John McCain a ‘no’ on Graham-Cassidy health care repeal effort

Republican Sen. John McCain announced his opposition Friday to the latest repeal effort to overturn Obamacare, potentially upending GOP hopes to push a new health care bill through.

“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal,” the Arizona senator said in a statement today about the legislation authored by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy. “I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried. Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will effect (sic) insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it.”

McCain said a CBO score wouldn’t be available by the end of the month, meaning “we won’t have reliable answers to any of those questions.”

The new health care bill, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Bill Cassidy, would bring sweeping changes to the current system. Lisa Desjardins and Sarah Kliff of Vox join John Yang to explain the policy and politics behind the bill.

Earlier in the day, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine had signaled that she was “leaning against” the Graham-Cassidy bill. Republicans would need 50 senators of the 52 senators in their party to secure the bill. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also said he would vote no. With McCain’s announced “no” vote today, the Graham-Cassidy bill may not have enough votes to pass.